Originally Posted by SimpleDXB

I moved to Doha in June. Since then, I've had the misfortune to fly QR and here is my experience (I have rapidly gone from Ivory to Gold in 5 mths). I will preface the following with the fact I've been in the Middle East for 9 years now and fly around 200k flown miles a year...

Qatar Experience:

- surly, unhelpful, often distant miserable crew;
- terrible lounges in Doha;
- poor onboard F+B consistently;
- inconsistent and mixed hard product on-board (save for 787 J class);
- extraordinarly / disproportionately expensive compared to competition;
- poor recognition for FF elites (I have never, ever been personally addressed or welcomed on a flight);
- point blank refusal of status match, despite proof of status and future travel plans;
- none existent ground staff service (e.g. I am writing this from lounge having just tried to swap to earlier flight - absolutely no interest in assisting, other carriers do this as a matter of course (I only have laptop case + no checked bags);
- rip off policy for F/J booking classes e.g. 2 class flights intra-Gulf are deemed F/Y class but long-haul J/Y class - means they can try to cream more for intra-gulf fares (e.g. F to DXB from DOHA is best part of 5000 Riyals (900 quid for a 40 min flight);
- no chauffeur drive;
- no fast track facilities (thank heaven for e-gate at DOH);
- generally all around fall short of competition, including EK (which I don't like), EY (which I do) and CX (which is by far best J class I've ever flown in);
- terrible booking engines / facilities. V difficult to book mixed classes etc and select specific fare classes;
- poor FFP - makes Skywards look generous!
- poor availability of rewards;
- zero customer service by telephone;
- regularly mess up bookings and take ages to issue flight confirmations.

The above is just off the top of my head as I sit waiting (dreading) another Gulf-hop with QR.

How on earth do QR maintain a supposed 5 star Skytrax rating? How much are they paying Skytrax? Is this a paid perk? I simply cannot believe I am the only one that thinks QR are only a shade above the likes of KLM and far worse than the other Gulf carriers and miles away from the Asian carriers?